The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-02-18
MURPHY'S DlcTuM.
"The World Is Growing Into So.
brfety.v

"The World Is Growing Into So
briety.o
Francis Murphy sways his audiences
at will with his carnestness and great
good humor And he is just as enter
tanning and appreciate when you meet
him personally.
A Cincinnati Times Star representa-.
live called on him at the Gibson House
recently. He went to stay fifteen min
utes, and staid an hour and half.
How do you feel about your work
in CincinnatiP'
II ought to feel good, beloved when
in my five weeks work over 10000 peo'
pie have signed the pledge. But, sup
posing only five per cent of that num-
Der were genuine converts-it's more
than tbat-but even that would it not
be grand thing. | think so. But ]
have been in places where ninety per
cent of signcrs were true converts. o,
people should not criticise. They ought
to jump in and help"
What are the prospects for temper
ance in this countryP"
"The world is growing sober, young
man. If YOU stop and study this ques-
ton. you VIII see it. What is il that
has driven the whisky jug from the har-
vest field, the wine glass largely from
the home, the drinking men from trust
ed positions, the bars from our steam
boatsp Yes and even from the boards
of the White House. Why, drinking
man these days stands no show in pc.
sitions of trust along side of the man
of sobriety. One of our leading rail.
roads, the other day, when paying of
its men, required each and every man
to put his name to II pledge; the great
Pennsylvania Railroad system will not
employ drinking men. Not only while
they are OH duty, but of duty as well.
The manager recently said to me, that
with the great responsibility resting on
him of carrying thousands of passen-
gers daily he could not trine with that
responsibility by employing men who
drank"
you think society is growing sober
then"
81 know il. read 1t in the signs of
the times"
But look at the gorgeousncss dis
played in our saloons"
"My dear man, the sun sometimes
makes the most gorgeous br lllanco as
il sets; the harlot will spend her last dol
lar to adorn herself ut the hour she
dies. / tell you there is an unwritten
law of society that is memorable. II
has banished liquor from strong foot
holds where il obtained formerly, and
where il will never regain its pow
er. You can regulatc-prohibit large
ly by heavy lIcense-but you can't pro-
hibit by law; but purify the man, make
him so that now there is no fault in
him, and he will not need law, but will
be law unto himself, | believe that
the great liquor traffic is weakening,
that its present gorgeousness is the
prelude to its decay. OF course this
can not come right away. But, as !
said before, we are a sober people.
after all, compared 10 the status of
things within the recollection of many
men. Why il used to be all right If a
lawyer could manage to hold himself
up by chair while he pleaded case;
doctor could stagger from his car
riage into the sick chamber-but it is
not so now. People won't have it.
The world is growing into sobriety. J
do not believe so much in Legislative
enactments and parties accomplishing
the thing that we would all like to see
and would be the better for. as do in
what the world is doing for itself quiet
ly but grandly and inexorably. We
are working out our own salvation in
this matter Of habit and appetite"